Adult Disneyland Day!!

Today was a very special day. Today was Adult Disneyland Day!! Can you tell how excited I was?!! The kids, Grandma and I have passes to Disneyland and get to go quite often. But Garrett doesn't have a pass so when Tatum won two adult tickets last year at her Hop-a-thon, we knew that one of those tickets was for an adult only fun day at the happiest place on earth. And today was the day. Grandma was so nice to watch the kids while Garrett and I took off at 10 am and hit the "big kid" rides as Tatum calls them. First up, Indiana Jones! I hadn't been on this one since high school! (that was just a few years ago of course) ;)

In between rides, we stopped to eat small snacks which I would normally never do with children. But we gladly sat down and ate a delicious salad, shared a corn dog while listening to Mary Poppins and Bert, and later enjoyed some ice cream cones on the curb of Main Street!

We also stopped to enjoy the shooting range. What a rush!

I've always wanted to go to a shooting range, just haven't gotten around to it. I use to shoot BB guns in the backyard with my dad but that's the only experience I've had. But I've always thought I'd be a good shot...

as I was proven right when Garrett and I went on Buzz Lightyear's ride where you get to shoot at targets throughout the ride. Look at the scores at the top of the screen. 85,500 to 20,600!!! I rocked! Or at least I thought I did...

until Jenny and Sadri met up with us and we had a rematch. Obviously someones been practicing! Look at those scores! All of them blew me away, I only got 98,000 the second time. Maybe shooting isn't my calling. :)

Here's a pic of the delicious ice cream we enjoyed. The funny thing about this was we sat down on the curb and started talking and I guess we were there for a while. Anyway, we went to get up and noticed the streets were lined with people. Obviously the parade was coming and we had a prime front row seat and didn't even realize it. As soon as we got up and left, people dove for our spots, so crazy. We definitely weren't sticking around for the parade, that's so something we would have done with the kids and that was NOT one of today's activities. :)

We headed over to California Adventure and we were headed to the scary Tower of Terror (and it was REALLY scary!) but we bumped into Jake!! This is Ty's favorite character on DisneyJr these days so I tried to get a picture with him. Apparently, a line formed in a half a second of little kids and I suddenly didn't feel right about standing in line for the pic. So here's Jake with a random girl, but Ty was excited all the same!

Garrett howling over the fun he was having!

After lots of fast rides, a glass of wine, a quiet sit down dinner, and a few glimpses of fireworks, we said good bye to Dland and a wonderful adult day.

And it made it that much better that Jenny and Sadri joined us, BFFs make any day better!

And it wouldn't be a proper Irvine weekend without some fun with our favorite friends. We headed over to the park around the corner from Grandma's house where Tatum and Mattie enjoyed the pipe slide...

and Ty and Isaac enjoyed train sliding, so cute!

I felt slightly guilty about being at Disneyland without the kids so we bought each of them a small present and Garrett got them each this sucker. I hate suckers. Not for the damage to their teeth, or the sugar high that it causes, but the pure disgusting mess. I HATE sticky fingers, yuck!

But both kids loved it. I was able to get the suckers away from them when they were half done and then they mysteriously disappeared. Of course Ty remember his sucker the next day and could you believe, we couldn't find them anywhere, thank goodness. :)

Our friends came over and enjoyed dinner with us before we headed home the next day. We love our friends, just wish they were down the block instead of down the freeway an hour.

Firemen at Preschool!

Today the Poway firemen came to Tatum's preschool to give a demonstration. As you can see, Tatum was out of her mind with excitement! :)

Ty couldn't wait to see the fire truck too.

And while we were watching the classes getting a tour of the truck, Ty made a friend! This is one of Tatum's classmate's sister Claire. The two are so cute together and will be attending school here next year!

Everyone got a chance to hold the hose and spray it, so cool!

Tatum loved that part the best.

Mrs. Kristen's class. Only a few more months in this class and then it's on to kindergarten! I can't believe it!

Saying Goodbye to the Nevens

We had a garage sale at our house with Matt, Erica and Jack. We wanted to clean out some junk and since the Neven's were packing up for their move to Guam, they had some stuff to get rid of as well. And it gave us all some time to hang out. Look at these three, so cute!

Here's Erica watching over her stuff. We'd laugh because there would be no one at our sale and then the people would come in droves, together. So crazy! Anyway, we all sold lots of stuff and had a fun day together.

Then later that week we all met at the Corvette Diner in Point Loma for our last night together. The restaurant has a game area and the kids all had fun on the motorcycles. :)

Tatum loved this ride, she decided she's getting a motorcycle for Christmas. Yeah right!

Then it was dinner and milk shake time! We probably shouldn't have ordered these before the meal. :)

Love this messy face!

Messy fingers! After dinner, the kids got balloons and ran around out in the front lawn chasing one another until they all lost their balloons. We had some tearful goodbyes (especially Erica and I of course) but it was a wonderful last night and I'm counting the days till we see them in Hawaii next June. It couldn't come soon enough. :(

Winter vacation in South Lake Tahoe

Snow!!! We love the snow, and it's so rare we get to enjoy it. So we headed for a week during winter break to South Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort. After a long 12 hour drive which started at 2:30 am (we were crazy to think leaving that early would some how make the trip more bearable!) we were happy to arrive at our hotel which was located just down the street from Heavenly Ski resort and all the shops and restaurants in town. We couldn't check in yet so we got out of the car to stretch our legs and play in the snow!

We walked down to the lake and the view was beautiful but it was pretty cold so we couldn't stay out long.

The next day we headed to a park that the concierge told us about and enjoyed some snow ball fights! Ty loved the snow but hated getting in the snow clothes. :)

We brought a sled and everyone enjoyed some sledding. Ty wasn't too sure about it, he was happy to throw snow.

We rented skis for Tatum and also brought them to the park. At first she had a hard time standing up in them or moving at all...

but after only a few minutes and some practice, she was balancing by herself and slowly going down a small hill. That firmed up whether she could take a ski lesson. She was so excited!

Leanne flew in and met us at the hotel the night before. We were so excited she could join us because she was with us for our winter adventure in Mammoth last year so now it's tradition! :)

We found a bigger hill and everyone enjoyed a fast ride down.

with an extra push. :)

BFFs!

Ty wasn't too keen on the sled so he tried some bottom sledding, much slower. :)

My sweet mountain man. As much as he hated the suit, he loved all the snow and fun.

My favorite part was definitely the sled. :)

For lunch, we headed to the shopping center at the base of Heavenly ski resort. We were hoping to ride the gondola up to the sledding area but it was $36 a person for the ride up so we decided against that and enjoyed some drinks instead.

The next day was the first day on the mountain and we couldn't wait! This year I was trying skiing again. I learned to ski when I was 4 or so and skied all through high school. But when I got into college, I got into boarding and never looked back. After a bad spill last year I thought I should try skiing and wow, I LOVED it! I realized I should never have left skiing and now I'm a skier for good!

But Leanne and Garrett, the boarders, didn't mind hanging with a skier. And look at the mountain and the view!

Beautiful! We had to stop and admire the beauty often. And even though it hadn't snowed that week, Heavenly did a great job making snow, it was so powdery and perfect!

Mid day snack. We learned after all this that it's hard to go back on the mountain and have any quality time after a few of these.

We loved these chairs! They were all over and after skiing a few slopes, they'd call to us.

A little mountain modeling. :)

Only after a few more rides, we found ourselves down at another bar. Oh goodness!

Even though it hadn't snowed lately, the trees were still covered in snow and it was beautiful.

The next day on the mountain Lee and I decided two things. Our outfits would look cuter if we switched jackets, and no shots. :)

Tatum was super excited because it was her ski lesson day! She looked so cute in her gear!

When we picked her up at 4, she had a smile on for the camera but told us she'll never ski again. She said she fell a lot and some kids fell on her and made her cry. The only good thing out of the day was the snowmobile ride to a play area. Hmmm, I think we need to try again next year.

He's Tatum's ski coach, he said she's a natural and just needs to keep trying.

While we were all out on the slopes, Grandma and Ty were enjoying the hotel. There was a child care center open 9 to 5 and the hotel gave each kid a half hour free play every day. Grandma dropped Ty off for 2 hours that day and he had a blast. The staff loved him and even though Ty's been playing the guitar for a while now, the staff loved how he played their toy guitar and they couldn't wait to show off his abilities at the Mardi Gras celebration that evening. Here's Ty rocking out with the DJ, he loved it!

On Wednesday, Mom, Lee and I did a little shopping and then had to drop Lee off at her shuttle since she was heading home. And the rest of the day we enjoyed the warm indoor pool at the hotel and a walk to Chevy's for dinner. The next day Garrett and I met my cousin Stephen at Squaw Valley ski resort. It was a windy day and the snow was real icy, not my favorite. But it was fun to see Stephen!

On our last day, we ventured out of town to Virginia City, a small mining town.

It had lots of old shops and funny things to look at.

One of the shops had this sign on the door, it was closed of course. A slower kind of life. :)

This old miner and his donkey came by to say hi. The kids enjoyed feeding the donkey carrots.

Then, before heading home, we stopped at Emerald Bay and saw some beautiful scenery.

And the boys got some fun snow time in.

We said goodbye to Tahoe the next day and headed to Bishop where we stopped at this delicious Dutch bakery for lunch. They had ride on toys out front which the kids loved.

We had a wonderful week of family fun in the snow. This was our second week using our family's time share and we're sold! We can't wait to get one of our own and go on lots of fun family trips!